This could be the creepiest save-the-date card you've ever seen

Some engaged couples like to look like movie stars in their save-the-date cards. Others opt for regular vacation pics or romantic photo shoots. Toronto couple Caitlin Bailey and Clayton Hoy did something a little less traditional: They re-created a family portrait they’d seen on Awkward Family Photos, and the results are skin-crawlingly bad in the best possible way.

“This awkward dad looks kind of like Clayton; that’s kind of what inspired us to do this exact photo,” Bailey tells Yahoo Lifestyle. (The photo in question from 1976 became a meme known as Vengeance Dad.) “We have all these really nice, classic engagement photos, but we kind of knew a really long time ago that we wanted to do this exact photo, and we were actually able to get the cats to pose … kind of.”

Photo: Robin Sharp

When searching for a photographer, they found Robin Sharp, whose personal Facebook profile features her husband, their cats, and a lot of lasers. Clearly, she was the woman for the job. The weird proportion of Hoy’s head to Bailey’s body, Hoy’s expression, and the caption — “Save the date … or else” — combine to make him seem a lot like the lead suspect in a true-crime series.

Congratulations?

“I swear he doesn’t look like a psychopath in real life,” Bailey writes on Reddit, where she posted the photo this week. Yahoo asked her for a couple of “normal” photos, just to be sure.

Clayton and Caitlin in a less awkward photo. (Photo: Courtesy of Caitlin Bailey)

The tone of this pic, while not for everyone, is emblematic of their close, silly relationship, Bailey says. The two met on OkCupid, were living together within five months, and knew right away that they were right for each other.

While some commenters on Reddit lamented that their own family would disapprove of a save-the-date notice like this, Bailey said she’s had an overwhelmingly positive reaction from friends (one is already using it as his Christmas-tree topper) and family.

“Both of our parents have just accepted that we’re ridiculous and are just going to be doing our own thing,” she said, though she admitted that she’ll have to let her more traditional mother be in charge of the real wedding invitations.

At their wedding this coming July, Bailey doesn’t know yet whether there will be anything as hilarious as this photo. “We’ll probably do our own silly vows of some kind,” she said. But after that, she’s pretty sure that she and her fiancé will make these awkward photos a tradition. She’s already got photo No. 2 picked out.